Soybean cleaner



Oct. 24, 1944; v E. KENITZ I 2,361,034

SOY BEAN CLEANER Filed Sept. 14, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet l Inventor I M ms E. KENITZ SOY BEAN CLEANER Filed Sept. 14, 1942 2 Sheets+$heet '2 I Inventor Evan mmzg;

Patented Oct. 24, 1944,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SOYBEAN CLEANER Ervin Kenitz, Elgin, Minn.

Application September 14, 1942, Serial No. 458,267

1 Claim. (Cl. 209-114) The present invention relates to new and useful improvements in soy bean cleaning devices, and for other purposes, and has for its primary object to provide an apparatus of this character embodying a plurality of inclined endless belts arranged in superposed relation and adapted to convey the material to be cleaned from one belt to the other, the character of the material being such that the whole beans will roll downwardly on the belt and gravitate from the lower end thereof and the broken beans or foreign matter will be discharged from the other end of the belt onto a belt immediately therebeneath to continue the cleaning operation.

A further object is to provide an apparatus of this character of simple and practical construction, which is efiicient and reliable in performance, relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and otherwise well adapted for the purposes for which the same is intended.

Other objects and advantages reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout and in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view.

Figure 2 is an end elevational view.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary top plan view.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view through the hopper taken substantially on a line 4-4 of Figure 3, and

Figure 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially on.a line 55 of Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, wherein for the purpose of illustration I have disclosed a preferred embodiment of the invention, the numeral 5 designates a plurality of upright supports having a hopper 6 secured at their upper ends, the hopper having an inclined bottom I and provided with a discharge opening 8 extending transversely of the machine. A shaft 9 is journaled in the opposite sides of the hopper on which a feed device I is secured for rotation in the hopper to regulate the volume of seed or beans discharged through the opening.

Positioned beneath the hopper 6 is an upper endless belt II, an intermediate endless belt I2 and a lower endless belt I3. As shown to advantage in Figure 1 of the drawings, the belts are arranged in vertically spaced relation and are inclined downwardly toward one end of the machine, the lower end of the belt ll travelling on a roller III while the upper end of the belt II travels over a roller I5. The roller I4 is J'ournaled between a pair of the supports 5, while the roller I is journaled in brackets l6 projecting inwardly from an opposite side of the machine.

The intermediate belt I2 likewise has its lower end adapted to travel over a roller I'I journaled in the supports 5 immediately below the roller I4 and the upper end of the belt l2 travels over a roller I8 journaled in brackets I9 projecting inwardly of the machine in spaced relation beneath the brackets I6.

The lower end .of the belt 13 is arranged to travel over a roller 20 journaled in the supports immediately beneath the roller I1 and the upper end of the belt I3 is adapted to travel over a roller 2| journaled in the supports immediately beneath the brackets l9.

One end of the rollers I4, I1 and 20 are provided with sprockets 22, 23 and 24, respectively, connected for uniform rotation by a chain 25. The upper roller I4 also carries a sprocket 26 driven by a chain 21 from a suitable source of power. I

On the opposite end of the roller [4 is also a sprocket 28 driving a chain 29 leading to a sprocket 30 on the shaft 9 for operating the feed device 10.

As will be observed from an inspection of Figure 1 of the drawings, the upper end of the upper belt II overlies the intermediate belt l2 and the upper end of the belt l2 similarly overlies the lower belt I3.

Accordingly, as the beans are discharged from the hopper onto the upper belt I I, the whole beans will roll downwardly toward the lower end of said belt for discharge therefrom into a suitable receptacle or elevator (not shown) while the broken beans or foreign substance will be moved upwardly by the belt for discharge from the upper'end thereof onto the belt I2 where the separating action is repeated.

It is believed the details of construction, manner of operation and advantages of the device will be readily understood from the foregoing without further detailed explanation.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim is:

A separator of the class described comprising an upright support, rollers journaled in said support at one side thereof in a horizontal position one above the other, brackets in the form of strips of strap metal projecting inwardly at a relative opposite side of the support and including upper and lower sets of brackets, the upper brackets extending upwardly toward the center of the support beyond the lower brackets, rollers J'ournaled in said brackets, endless belts mounted to travel on said rollers, said rollers being arranged to support the respective belts in an inclined position, the upper end of each upper discharge belt overlying an intermediate portion of a lower belt for depositing material directly onto the surface of an adjacent lower belt, means for operating the belts to cause an upward movement of the upper flights thereof, and a hopper supported above the uppermost belt and having an opening for discharging material thereon.

ERVIN KENITZ. 

